Aqueous cleaning compositions are useful for removing dirt and other soils from a variety of surfaces including hard surfaces such as floors, walls, countertops, and furniture. Many commercially-available aqueous cleaners include an organic solvent combined with water and optional ingredients such as surfactants, colorants, fragrances, and the like. Makers of these cleaning compositions, whether for household, industrial, or institutional use, are faced with the task of optimizing the cleaning formulations by selecting a solvent that exhibits excellent cleaning performance, but that causes minimum adverse effects on the user and the environment. To date, this problem has not been successfully resolved, as most high performance cleaning compositions do not have benign toxicity profiles and/or include high VOC solvents, while many “green” cleaners, recently developed in light of stricter environmental regulations, exhibit unsatisfactory cleaning performance.
Thus, a need exists for a safe, environmentally friendly cleaning composition capable of removing soil from a substrate with high efficiency. Preferably, the cleaning composition would be effective to remove a variety of types of undesirable substances from a wide range of substrates. Further, the cleaning composition should be able to be manufactured in a cost-effective manner and on a commercial scale.